1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for acquiring and providing various information with the use of an imaging element.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there exists a technique for acquiring position information from an image of a photographed scenery and acquiring information related to the position. Japanese Patents Application Laid-Open No. 2003-330953, No. 2003-323440 and No. 2002-247045 relate to such a technique.
Recently, there have also been developed various techniques for instinctively and understandably controlling desired equipment with a single controller. For example, according to “Proposal of ‘OPTO-NAVI’ System, which is an information-appliance multi-purpose remote controller using a low power consumption ID-receiving CMOS image sensor having a function of reading a partial area at a high speed” (The Journal of the Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers Vol. 59, No. 12, pp. 1830-1840 (2005)), an ID is received from equipment by taking normal images in real time with the use of a custom image sensor mounted on a mobile phone. The received ID is shown on a display, being superimposed on the taken background image. A user can perform an operation while visually recognizing the target equipment and the ID on the display.